Trace (Trace 1) (24 page)

Two weeks later, Trace got a call at his Las Vegas condominium.

“This is Mitchell Carey.” The voice was gravelly and labored, as if produced only by great exertion and willpower.

“How are you feeling?” Trace asked.

“Matteson says I’m getting better, but I still feel like crap. I just called to thank you.”

“Do what the doctor says,” Trace said. “Tell me, did you know what was going on when you were kind of out of it?”

“Sometimes I did. I could hear things and sometimes I could concentrate. Like I knew that Muffy was using Amanda. I spotted that in the hospital, but then I got worse and I couldn’t do anything about it.”

“Do you remember, in the sanatorium, you told me that somebody was trying to kill you?”

“I kind of remember that,” Carey said.

“You were counting,” Trace said. “A hundred, a hundred hundred, do you remember? Do you know what that was about?”

“I was thinking about my brain cells dying. Maybe I was counting them off,” Carey said.

“Yeah. I thought that’s what it was,” Trace said. “So get well.”

“I’m working on it. And thanks.”

A week after the phone call, Trace was summoned to appear before a New Jersey grand jury. The jury subsequently indicted Muffy, her brother, and Yule for attempted murder.

Trace got in, testified, and left the same day. His ex-wife and children never knew he was in the state until it was too late for them to do anything about it.

Three months later, he received in the mail an invitation to the wedding of Jeannie Callahan and Dr. George Matteson. He saw the marriage would take place in New Jersey, so he threw the invitation away. No point in pressing his luck.